I have pretty big day coming up tomorrow. An argument could be made that it is the biggest day, or most significant one, of my life. Marriage is supposed to last the rest of your lives together, which is a pretty long time, hopefully. And it is a deliberate decision that you make, it is not something that happens "to" you, at random. It is one of the only ways (besides adoption) that you extend or increase your family. And family is intended to be a permanent status, and a significant part of your identity.
The identity shift is a big one, from single guy to married husband. Certain things are less of a shift for me, because I haven't been living a particularly wild single life. Besides the extensive traveling, I have lived in a way that is fairly conducive to marriage, and that was no accident. I have been looking forward to this for a while, but it will be a big change.
People keep asking me if I am nervous, assuming a positive response. Maybe it hasn't really "hit" me yet, but I am quite calm about it. The major decisions involved were made a long time ago. The only thing the wedding really marks is the end of the opt-out period called the engagement. And since I am confident that I am not going into this decision impulsively, or without thinking about it enough, I don't see what there is to be nervous about.
Sure there will be a lot of people staring at us during the ceremony, and it would be nice if all of our carefully laid plans went off without a hiccup, but that is not essential. Even if something doesn't go as smoothly as we would like, we will get married. And then we will have a whole new challenge in front of us, that will be longer but probably less intense than planning a wedding. I am honestly almost as excited to get that stressful tedious phase behind us as I am for the new phase that we step into, on the honeymoon. It is not like we haven't been waiting long enough, and our engagement was short compared to most. So it will be interesting to see what new unanticipated things this new change brings. But I am definitely looking forward to it.
